My favorite meat-free menu items

Keeping meat out of my kitchen wasn’t too much of a struggle during our vegetarian stint in January. Avoiding it when dining out? Not quite so easy.

As mentioned in my previous post, we don’t typically keep a lot of meat in the house, so as long as I kept up with my meal planning and grocery shopping we didn’t have any must-have-meat-now! breakdowns.

I don’t know about you, but when going out to eat I try to order something I wouldn’t normally have at home. I’m going for elaborate, rich, and, in most cases, meatier-than-usual options. It’s tough to focus on the roasted beets when you’re normally cruising the menu for filet mignon.

However, we stepped outside of our routine when dining out in January and were rewarded with some wonderful dishes.

We finally got around to checking out Andy Nguyen, and the Buddhist-inspired vegetarian offerings were fantastic.

Buddha Rolls: Lemongrass-infused shiitake mushroom, rice noodles, carrots and daikon wrapped with lettuce in rice paper and served with a soy ginger dipping sauce

Limitless Compassion: Spicy Mongolian “beef” (they have a lot of vegetarian “meats” on the menu) sauteed with broccoli, bell peppers and carrots

Universal Love Lemongrass: Sauteed mushrooms, onions, tofu and mixed vegetables with soy chicken in a spicy lemongrass sauce

We headed to the mountains a couple weekends ago searching for snow and discovered the Cottonwood Restaurant and Bar, which overlooks downtown Truckee -- you can see the glowing red sign atop this ski-lodge-turned-eatery’s roof from the bottom of the hill. Chris and I were impressed with our meal from start to finish: roasted polenta gratin with fresh mozzarella, tomato and roasted garlic with an almond and red bell pepper romesco; a salad of warmed chevre cheese, spiced pecans, roasted garlic and spring greens; and some heavenly butternut squash enchiladas with ancho chile mole sauce, cilantro, white cheddar and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Orphan serves the best breakfast (at least, in my opinion) in Sacramento. Ordering is always tough because their menu is amazing. On a recent Sunday brunch I opted for the soy chorizo breakfast, an amazing pile of scrambled eggs, soy chorizo, jack cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, green onions, cilantro and avocado served atop corn tortillas and black beans. So good!

Meat-free month good way to start 2012

“Why would you do that?” is the typical reaction I’ve received when telling people that I was giving up meat for 28 days. 

Cutting meat out of our diet for 28 days (Chris and I kicked it off January 4 so as not to waste already-prepared meat dishes in the fridge) felt like a good way to kick off 2012, to repent for some of the overindulging that happened during the holiday season, to test myself in the kitchen.

We don’t eat a lot of meat to begin with, and definitely don’t keep a lot of it in the house, but it’s still been a fun challenge to find veg-friendly recipes and to stick to the meatless entrées at restaurants. 

I must confess that neither of us get a 100 percent for sticking to the meat-free diet -- we both put the diet on a one-meal hold for Chris’ work holiday party at the ever-delicious Hawks -- but I’m still proud of what we’ve done over the past couple weeks. We’ve definitely gone through a lot more vegetables, and I’ve spent more time menu planning in order to waste less produce. I made my own vegetable stock, brought barley and quinoa home for the first time, and have consumed more tofu in the last month than I probably did in 2011.

I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t looking forward to Feb. 1 and the promises of cheeseburgers, deli sandwiches and chicken enchiladas it brings, but I’m still happy with how our meat-free month turned out.

As previously mentioned, I finally got around to buying barley this month, which I used to make this super-hearty soup (recipe adapted from Epicurious) that would be perfect for a frosty winter's day. 

Mushroom Barley Soup
1oz. dried chanterelles (I used Fungus Amongus)
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs celery with leaves, diced
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
12 ounces fresh cremini mushrooms
6-7 cups vegetable broth
2 cups whole barley
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper, to taste

Soak the dried mushrooms in at least 2 cups hot water, to cover, for 30 minutes. Strain through a filter and reserve 2 cups of the mushroom water. Coarsely chop the dried mushrooms.

Melt the butter in a large pot (I used my Le Creuset Dutch oven) and sauté the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, thyme and fresh mushrooms until soft, about 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth and barley, reserved mushroom water and bay leaf to the pot and bring to a boil. Stir well and add salt and pepper to taste. 

Simmer, covered, for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until barley is tender and soup thickens. Remove bay leaf and season with adjust seasonings to your liking.